Ambo’s shock mum didn’t want to accompany unresponsive baby to hospital

A paramedic has told a court she was surprised a baby’s mother – now charged with his murder – said she couldn’t accompany them to the hospital after the boy’s heart stopped.

Robert Alan Gee and Kristie Lee Willmot.

A paramedic recalling the frantic scenes surrounding a baby’s death has told a court she was surprised when the boy’s mother, now charged with his murder, told them she couldn’t accompany them to the hospital after the boy’s heart stopped.

Kristie Lee Wilmot and her partner Robert Alan Gee were each charged with murder following the death of Ms Wilmot’s five-week old son Michael.

Michael died at a Daisy Hill caravan park in 2021, after sustaining significant head trauma as well as fractures to his ribs and leg.

It is alleged Michael was shaken by Mr Gee and that Ms Wilmot did not act to save him or inform the authorities.

Mr Gee and Ms Wilmot both appeared at Brisbane Magistrates’ Court on Thursday for a committal hearing, in which two witnesses were cross-examined.

The caravan where the couple and baby lived. Picture: John Gass

Both defendants had solemn faces when seated in separate sections of the dock, divided by a glass door.

Ms Wilmot’s gaze remained fixed to the floor throughout the day.

The court first heard evidence from advanced care paramedic Rachel Taylor, one of the paramedics that assisted in attempting to revive the baby on the day of his death.

Ms Taylor recounted to the court the intense level of focus that took over her when arriving at the scene on June 14, 2021.

She said the incident, which she described as the first pediatric cardiac arrest she ever attended, was “not a day that I remember clearly, or want to remember clearly”.

In her initial statement shortly after the incident, Ms Taylor had described how Ms Wilmot “didn’t come near the baby or appear to want to come near the baby” while she was at the scene.

The statement detailed how Ms Taylor had briefly interacted with a “tearful” Ms Wilmot, who “didn’t respond to (her) other than continuing to cry” after Ms Taylor informed her that Michael’s heart wasn’t beating.

Ms Wilmot initially told paramedics that she “couldn’t come” to the hospital, and only agreed to accompany them when Ms Taylor told her: “you’re his mum and you need to come with him,” according to the statement.

Springtime Gardens Caravan Park at Daisy Hill where the couple and baby lived. Picture: John Gass

In court Ms Taylor elaborated that she had been “surprised” as in other such cases she had dealt with, parents had wanted to stay close to their child.

She said Ms Wilmot hadn’t elaborated at the time, and described her as “stand-offish” towards her.

Ms Taylor told the court she now wanted to amend one part of her statement, which read: “She (Ms Wilmot) said she fed the baby with a syringe, was holding him on her chest and realised he wasn’t breathing.

“I thought this was odd that she had just fed him. To me it didn’t make sense that he supposedly stopped breathing so quickly,” the statement continued.

Ms Taylor told the court that, with the years of experience she’d gained since, she now understood that “these things can happen quite suddenly”.

The court also heard evidence from forensic expert Rebecca Williams, who conducted the autopsy that concluded Michael had likely died from injuries caused by shaking.

“It’s very difficult to find other explanations actually,” she told the court.

“The thing that’s very interesting here is really the lack of any major injury on the outside of his body.

“There’s very few things where an infant will look relatively normal from the outside, yet then on the inside we discover all of these injuries.”

“ … To get those types of injury really does require a severe degree of force.”

Dr Williams said a suggestion from Mr Gee’s barrister David Funch – that all Michael’s head injuries were caused by him being dropped – was “completely implausible”.

She said he could have been dropped, but that that alone would not have caused his specific combination of head injuries.

The court heard Michael had struggled with laryngomalacia and difficulties eating, and he had undergone larynx surgery two weeks prior to his death.

But Dr Williams said she did not find anything throughout the autopsy to indicate there had been any complications with the surgery.

The committal hearing will continue on Friday morning, with one additional expert witness to give evidence.